Last Rites
by Fragraham Lincon
Summary: Henry risks life and limb to confront Giles, though he learns more than he would like to know? Don't look back or you'll become a pillar of salt.


Castlevania: Last Rites  
  
By: Fragraham Lincon  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The very ground rumbled beneth their feet. Seven individuals  
  
were running for their very life throughout the bleak forest outside  
  
the dread castle Dracula.  
  
Its lord defeated by the two prophecised ones, the fortress  
  
was breaking apart and plunging into the waters of the lake surrounding.  
  
Amidst this chaos the seven fled as not to be buried along with the   
  
minions of darkness.  
  
The seven though were neither the servants of the dark lord, nor  
  
were any among them the foretold saviors. Rather they were six children  
  
who'd by luck and grace of God survived the nightmare. Three boys, three  
  
girls, from various walks of life, taken by the darkness mistaken for  
  
the reborn savior of the darkness. All of them were terribly frightened  
  
by the whole experiance but felt safe even as the world fell apart around them  
  
as they seventh among them was no child. His face hidden by a helmet,  
  
was a man of sturdy build, wearing armor and carying a firearm more intricate  
  
in design than most would see in their entire lives. His name was Henry  
  
Oldrey DeRais. Though he had no backing of holy powers or linieage of heroes  
  
to empower him he had a strong sense of justice that brought him back to this  
  
place. He was here to protect the innocent, and mabey to settle a long standing  
  
grudge should he be given the chance.  
  
He had succeeded on one count. He arrived at the docks, with the children  
  
panting heavily to keep up with his fleet footing, and even one young lady  
  
who couldn't keep up catching a ride on his shoulders. Waiting patiently  
  
at the beach was a cloaked man carying a long staff, which on closer inspection  
  
was actually an enormous oar. He stood firmly in his small watercraft  
  
not flinching a bit despite the goings on around him.  
  
"Thank you for waiting." Henry said adressing the strange individual.  
  
"No thanks needed. It is my duty." The ferryman replied.  
  
Henry turned toward the children behind him and pointed to the ferryman's  
  
boat letting the child down in the boat where she took a seat on the edge,  
  
her feet still aching. She'd spent days precariously perched on a narrow ledge  
  
within the castle wall, aparently forgotten once the dark minions realized she  
  
was not the one they searched for. But now everything was alright. Though  
  
she'd never heard of the two who actually battled the dark lord, Dracula,  
  
she saw a savior right in front of her. In fact Henry was quite the hero to all  
  
the children and was on more than one occasion informed by them that they would like  
  
to grow up to be like him.  
  
The children gathering in the ferryman's boat Henry handed off a  
  
bag of coins to the ferryman and asked that he take the children back to  
  
the far side of the lake.  
  
"Children trust this man and please be good for him. When you reach  
  
the far side wait there and someone, either a big man, or a girl   
  
about your age,will arrive to take you back home."  
  
One of the boys looked up to Henry even as the ferryman shoved   
  
the boat off intot he water and began rowing away.  
  
"Aren't you coming with us Mr. Oldrey?" he asked.  
  
Henry looked back over his shoulder to the crumbling castle. The ground  
  
its self was lowering beneth his feet, sinking into the lake. He then   
  
looked back to the boat and placed a hand on each side of his helmet clicking  
  
a pair of latches open unhinging the mechanism that held the armored article  
  
in place. The cast the helmet into the water revealiing his face. A handsome  
  
young man of twenty years with blond hair, who'd aparently forgotten to shave  
  
for a day or two. He smiled to the children and shook his head implying that  
  
he had no intention of leaving this place yet.  
  
Henry walked back inland as the boat departed. He took his gun in hand  
  
a long barreled rifle yet with a unique revolver mechanism using precussion caps,  
  
a far more reliable mechanism than the more common flintlocks of the day.  
  
He turned the revolver drum out ejecting the spent caps and opened a pouch  
  
on his belt. Even as rubble fell around him, whole trees falling over and crashing  
  
violently to the ground and demonic creatures running about too panicked to notice him  
  
henry calmly inserting paper wrapped packets of powder, minnieballs, and precussion  
  
caps in their apropriate points. The task done Henry slapped the drum shut,  
  
and closed his pouch leaving his spent caps littered on the ground behind him.  
  
Still the castle crumbled. Walls shattered like glass and fell  
  
to piles of rubble, tiny chunks of the stone richocheting and flying past  
  
Henry's head without so much as a flinch issuing from him.  
  
Finaly Hnery stopped in front of a flowing fountain and a once  
  
lovely home that still stood despite the chaos nearby. At one time this had  
  
been Henry's front yard before it was enshrouded and posessed by the demon  
  
castle that rose up around it.  
  
Walking around the fountain came an older looking man with white  
  
well kept hair and a full beard, wearing a bright crimson suit with a black  
  
bowtie. His face was pale, in fact so pale it seemed to be a light blue,  
  
while his fingers were ended with fingernails that were long and pointed  
  
like the claws of some feral beast. Giles DeRais, Henry's own ancestor  
  
and currently the last loyal servant of Dracula Vlad Tepes.  
  
Henry pointed his gun to this individual without a word, only  
  
an expression of hatred and bitterness. Giles gave a smile revealing  
  
gleaming white fangs leaving no doubt as to his nature.  
  
"You could have escaped, you could have gone home a hero  
  
and never woried about me for the next fourty years.   
  
Instead you turned back. 'and Lott's wife looked back  
  
and became a pillar of salt.' Consumed by your hate for   
  
me you've already chosen your own fate."  
  
Henry didn't respond. The only sound was the clicking of his gun's  
  
mechanism followed by the loud thundering explosion of gunpoder and the hissing  
  
of lead hurtling through the air. A splash of red issued from Giles' chest.  
  
The bullet ahd pierced his heart but still Giles stood. A vampire too ancient  
  
to be killed by the normal weaknesses of his kind, even the piercing of the heart.  
  
Yet it did weaken him. Still Giles stood defiantly...smiling.  
  
Henry again pulled the trigger, the drum of his weapon rotating   
  
and bringing a fresh bullet to the chamber and issuing it fourth through Giles'  
  
flesh this time tearing through his shoulder joint causing the arm to fall limp.  
  
Henry paused for a moment expecting something from Giles. Yet Giles  
  
made no attempt to move.  
  
"Fight back you bastard!" Henry demanded.  
  
"Is that the same gun you used on your father?" Giles answered.  
  
Enraged Henry again fired destroying the joint of Giles' other  
  
shoulder.  
  
"I am your father's great grandfather's father." Stated Giles  
  
plainly.  
  
Henry fired another round through Gile's left leg causing him to fall  
  
to his knees. Now henry aproached and lowered the barrel of his gun to Giles'  
  
face. "Tell me something before I kill you."  
  
"You already know the answer. You just don't want to accept the  
  
truth. Your dear mother, how sweet her blood was. Oldrey was  
  
quite kind to share her with me. And yet...she never could   
  
understand the truth. She shoved a knive through her heart in the  
  
end. As for yoru father...You already know."  
  
Henry couldn't let himself be thrown by this. If anything it  
  
was happier for him that his mother chose a just death over being enslaved  
  
by the darkness. But why was Giles so evasive? Why wouldn't he tell him  
  
about his father?  
  
"TELL ME!" Henry shouted.   
  
Giles looked down the barrel of the gun and smiled. "I can  
  
imagin that it happened just like this. Go ahead boy. Finish what  
  
you started. And when you do everything will be in place"  
  
That was enough. Hnery could take no more and puled the trigger.  
  
At this range there was no doubt in what the bullet did. Like a tiny cannonball  
  
the bullet tore through the top of Giles' head almost completely removing it,  
  
and leaving pieces of his skull laying on the ground several feet behind.  
  
The vampire's corpse fell lifeless to the ground missing the top  
  
of the head. Henry's gun slipped from his grip hitting the still trembling ground.  
  
He hadn't yet noticed that the water was rising, or rather the island was sinking.  
  
He was ankle deep now and would soon need to find a way to shore.  
  
Henry dropped the chestplate of his armor to the ground just in  
  
case he might need to make a long swim for shore and as he turned to look  
  
for a means of escape he heard the gargled voice of Giles speaking. The  
  
deceased corpse even without the top of its head defied all science, logic,  
  
and nature by standing up and speaking to Henry choking on blood and swamp  
  
water.  
  
"This is not the end of this Son of Oldrey. In fourty years  
  
Dracula will rise again. Our family is bound to him and in time  
  
he will call for you again. Once your eyes have gazed beyond   
  
the mortal realm and you have seen the truth, you can not   
  
un-see it. You can notun-learn the blasphemous knowledge  
  
of our black Massiah. Go Henry, son ofOldray, last of   
  
Derais. Go back and wait for your time."  
  
Henry kicked his gun into the air, snatching it into his hand and with  
  
a twirl pointed it toward the ampilatory corpse of Oldrey and fired his last  
  
bullet into the dread thing's neck tearing through throat, muscle and spine  
  
causing the head to fall limp and soon the body followed by splasing down in  
  
the ankle deep murky water, lifeless once again.  
  
Henry was still shocked by the occurance and was still repeatedly  
  
pulling the trigger despite the empty click of the ammunition deprived   
  
mechanism. Snapping back to reality Henry saw the lifeless corpse laying  
  
before him and holstered his gun. Though Giles' words weighed heavy on  
  
him he still had to find a way off this accursed island.  
  
It seems however that he'd stranded himself. He had no idea how  
  
Carrie and Reinhardt were going to get out. The tower had already  
  
collapsed yet he felt a confidence that those two were resourceful  
  
and just plain lucky enough to get away safely.   
  
A cursed sort of luck though soon smiled on Henry as well.  
  
He was lifting into the air and was headed toward shore. Looking up  
  
he realized he was being carried. Enormous talons were locked onto  
  
his shoulders and above his head he saw feathers and flesh in an unusual  
  
merging. He realized he was looking at one of Dracula's minions.  
  
The harpy was carying him to safety. But hadn't he killed her? He  
  
remembered clearly his bullets ripping her flesh apart and her bloody  
  
lifeless body falling from the towers of the outer wall intot he abyss below.  
  
But when stale cold blood dripped from the harpy onto Henry's  
  
face he realized just how true his memories were. Just like Giles  
  
this harpy was acting in spite of death, in deffiance of its own lifelesness.  
  
A disturbing thought as to just what was saving him overcame Henry and  
  
more importantly why.   
  
Still there was little time to contemplate. Almost as quickly  
  
as Henry could begin to question it the Harpy nearing shore ceased  
  
its unholy vitality and dropped as dead weight along with enry into the  
  
waters of the lake below.  
  
The corpse's weight was pulling Henry down, now in stark  
  
contrast to before. He pried his fingers under the talons now with  
  
no force behind them easily removed from his body. While the dead  
  
thing of a harpy sank out of view Henry kicked vigorously bringing  
  
himself back to the surface and a breath of air.  
  
Treading water Henry got his bearings and swam toward shore.  
  
A short time later Henry was pulling himself on shore. Standing two  
  
feet on soil once again he looked around himself. A thin mist was all  
  
about being pierced by the light of the rising sun.  
  
The events transpiring only minutes ago seemed so distant now,  
  
almost like a dream fading from memory. Looking ahead Henry spotted  
  
the six children waiting for his arival. They collectively waved  
  
and shouted to Henry welcoming his return. Henry smiled as he joined  
  
the group and began walking back toward home.  
  
"Your parents must be worried. Come on kids, let's go home."  
  
As he lead the way home confidence shone on Henry's face.  
  
He was had grown into a strong young man. Yet in the back of his mind,  
  
dark things, unholy things, and disturbing images. But fourty years  
  
was a long time away. No one knows the future. Henry had made up his  
  
mind to walk away from the shadow of Dracula. To never turn back  
  
and become a pillar of salt.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Author's Note: Thanks for reading this. This was meant to be a stand  
  
alone fic so there won't be a sequal. I leave it up to you the reader  
  
to decide just what happens in Henry's future.  
  
Though I invite you to read my other works at CFAS.  
  
http://gigahurts.tripod.com/cfas 


End file.
